Group Calendar

Existing Group Calendars

sws social events

• purpose: publish social events in the SWS department
• owners: Harco Kuppens, Mairieli Wessel, Sven-Bodo Scholz
• webpage: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=673803b665fea319a9af80e9f39d3d7c3310200ca9db88ed073fa872f86a80e5%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe%2FAmsterdam
• ical: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/673803b665fea319a9af80e9f39d3d7c3310200ca9db88ed073fa872f86a80e5%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Using a Group calendar

Viewing the group calendar

We make the group calendar public, making it viewable in a browser(html page) or in a calendar client(ical url) without needing any authentication. The webpage is directly viewable in a browser. In your calendar program you can subscribe to the ical url to view the calendar in that program.

Editing the group calendar

To be an editor of the group calendar you need a google account to authorize yourself at google.

You have to ask another group member which has owner rights to give you edit rights.

An owner can give another group member edit rights to the group calendar as follows:

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On the left side of the page, click My calendars.
3. Hover over the calendar you want to add someone to, and click Options and then click Make changes to events.
4. In the "Share with specific people" section, click Add people.
5. Enter the email address of the person or group you want to make an owner.
6. In "Permissions," select Make changes and manage sharing.
7. Click Send.

The new editor gets an invitation link sent to its google account. He first has to click on this link to add the calendar to his google account. Then in a second step, the new editor can open the calendar in its calendar program by adding his personal google account to this calendar program. Note: if your google account is added to your calendar program then in thunderbird you still have to add the calendar explicitly, but for apple calendar, it will automatically be added.

Note: if a reader/editor deletes the calendar, then the calendar itself is not deleted, the person just did unsubscribe.

Note: as an editor you can change the name of the calendar, but that is only for yourself. Others will see the unedited name.

Share ownership of the group calendar

To become an owner of the group calendar you need a google account to authorize yourself at google.

You have to ask another group member which already has owner rights to give you also ownership.

An owner can give another group member also ownership of the group calendar as follows:

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On the left side of the page, click My calendars.
3. Hover over the calendar you want to add someone to, and click Options and then click Settings and sharing.
4. In the "Share with specific people" section, click Add people.
5. Enter the email address of the person or group you want to make an owner.
6. In "Permissions," select Make changes and manage sharing.
7. Click Send.

The new owner gets an invitation link sent to its google account. He first has to click on this link to add the calendar to his google account. Then in a second step, the new editor can open the calendar in its calendar program by adding his personal google account to this calendar program. Note: if your google account is added to your calendar program then in thunderbird you still have to add the calendar explicitly, but for apple calendar, it will automatically be added.

Note: I had the idea to make each editor also an owner, so each editor can also give edit rights to other group members. In this way, we distribute the edit management between the editors. However, I discovered that as an owner you can permanently delete the calendar. The risk exists that some editor by accident deletes the calendar. So I decided to keep owners and editors separate. To get edit rights you have to ask an owner.

Background info about google calendar as a group calendar

Why we use google calendar as a group calendar

Microsoft calendar is only supported by outlook clients you cannot open this in other calendar programs. Because in our group people use other clients like thunderbird and apple calendar we needed to search for another solution.

Google calendar however is supported in other calendar programs which you can access read-only for a public calendar without needing credentials however, you must have a google account credentials for editing.

Because only for editing the calendar a google account is needed and most people have such an account we decided that it won't be a problem to use google calendar as a group calendar.

Conclusion:
Microsoft calendar is a nightmare to cooperate with other calendar programs. Google provides a solution, but for editing you need a google account. Most people already have a google account, so I don't see a problem there.

Features google calendar

1. readonly viewing without needing credentials
   You can make a google calendar public, making it viewable in a browser(html page) or in a calendar client(ical url) without needing any authentication. I can put these urls in our intrawiki and initially send them around in an email.
2. editable by sharing (google account required)
   You can share the calendar editable, by inviting a  new editor using its google account. The new editor gets a invitation link sent to its google account. He first has to click on this link to add the calendar to its google account. Then in a second step the new editor can open the calendar in its calendar program by adding his personal google account to this calendar program.
   Note: if your google account is added in your calendar program then in thunderbird you still have to add the calender explicitly, but for apple calendar it will automatically be added.

Setup a google calendar as group calendar

Create a google calendar in your own google account, share it public (with an ical url you can add to your calendar), people who want to edit need to ask permission and need to authenticate with their own google account to which the calendar will be added also. (calendar is shared between accounts)

If the owner of the calendar leaves the department we can transfer the calendar to another owner. (must be a google account to transfer to!) So when editable sharing, share to a google account, and then preferably give the rights "Make changes and manage sharing". Then the new editor becomes also owner and again can share the calendar to other group members. The calendar can have multiple owners! So we distribute the 'edit/owner' management.